Sri Lanka has a better story than getting out - UN envoy tells Sri Lanka President

Sept 18, Colombo: The visiting UN Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe met with Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa to day at the Temple Trees to hold discussions on the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) situation.

The high-ranking UN official was of the view that Sri Lanka has a better story than is getting out to the world on matters of concern to the United Nations such as the IDPs, human rights, and Post Conflict Development, the government said following the meeting.

"You have a better story than is getting out today," the visiting UN official has told the President

Pascoe visited the IDP camps in the North yesterday to get a firsthand view of the situation there and he had the opportunity to observe the accelerated de-mining operations and reconstruction efforts in the area needed to carry out prior to resettlement of the IDPs in their original habitats.

He expressed satisfaction at the progress being made on de-mining especially with the use of new imported equipments to speed up the process and assured of more UN assistance in this regard.

In reply to Pascoe's concerns regarding the resettlement plans, the President said that it's necessary to understand both Sri Lanka and the UN were eager to accomplish the same goal.

"I understand the pressure and constraints on the Secretary-General. However you must also understand the problems we face," the President said.

Pointing out that the resettlement depends on the de-mining process, President Rajapaksa said he has set the initial target and laid down the plans to resettle at least 70% of the IDPs by the end of January, next year.

"Sixteen years after its war, Croatia had still not finished de-mining. We do not intend taking so much time. I have laid down an initial target of 180 days to resettle at least 70% of the IDPs," the President said.

"We have identified areas for resettlement and the people will be sent back no sooner they are cleared," he assured the UN envoy.

With regard to the freedom of movement outside the relief centers the President said that arrangements are already being made to issue day passes for IDPs who wish to go and work outside.

When Pascoe raised the issue of the two detained local UN workers, President Rajapaksa said charges against these UN drivers would be filed next week. He stressed that although steps such as deportation could be taken about foreigners involved in LTTE activities, legal action was required against Sri Lankans identified with actions that violated the country's law.

Considering the understanding that existed between the UN and Sri Lanka, President Rajapaksa told the UN envoy that he did not expect the UN to pacify any members, big or small, about the situation in Sri Lanka.

"Whether it is the US, China, Britain, or any country we are all members of the UN. When the UN says anything about us we take it seriously. Similarly if big countries, try to bully us we will come to the UN about such matters," President said.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, Justice Minister Milinda Moragoda, Minister of Housing and Construction Mrs. Ferial Ashroff, Senior Presidential Adviser MP Basil Rajapaksa, president's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and other senior government officials also participated in the discussions.

Pakistan police to arrest militant sought by India

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani police plan to arrest an Islamist militant leader accused by India of masterminding last year's Mumbai attack, a move likely to help ease fraught relations with New Delhi.

Police said Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) militant group, would be arrested for propagating jihad, and collecting funds for a charity he heads.

India has been demanding action against Saeed and other Pakistan-based militants before it will resume a formal peace process, broken off by New Delhi after the Mumbai attack.

Police in the city of Faisalabad lodged two complaints against Saeed this week for delivering a speech to his supporters last month in which he urged jihad, or holy war, and appealed for funds for his Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity.

"We hope to arrest him soon," Hafiz Mohammad Irfan, a senior police official in Faisalabad, told Reuters.

The police complaints came ahead of a meeting between the Pakistani and Indian foreign ministers and the nuclear-armed rivals' top diplomats in New York this month.

Speaking in London, President Asif Ali Zardari said Pakistan was seeking a cooperative relationship with India and reiterated Pakistan's call for a resumption of formal peace talks.

He declined to go into details on Saeed, but said the action against him showed "our determination to prosecute anyone who is inclined towards an aggressive mindset."

Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told an Indian news channel that even if Saeed were arrested on another charge, it would represent "significant progress" if Pakistan used this as an opportunity to questioned him about the Mumbai attack.

FOREIGN MINISTERS TO MEET

Pakistan has acknowledged the Mumbai attack was partly plotted and planned from its soil, begun the trial of five suspects, and arrested two more. But it has said evidence given by India about Saeed was insufficient and not tenable in court.

Saeed was detained in December, after a U.N. Security Council resolution put him and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity led by him on a list of people and groups supporting al Qaeda.

But in June, a court released him citing lack of evidence, prompting the Pakistani government to launch an appeal in the Supreme Court for his re-arrest. That case is pending.

A spokesman for Saeed said on Friday authorities were acting under pressure from India.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart, S.M. Krishna, are due to meet on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Sept. 26.

Their meeting will be preceded by talks between their foreign secretaries, or top diplomats, but Qureshi said this week he did not expect any breakthrough.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, two of them over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir. The two countries have held three bilateral meetings since June.

Zardari said it was essential both countries made "meaningful progress" to resolve the Kashmir dispute in the interests of regional peace.

Over 1,300 new swine flu cases in Mexico in 3 days

MEXICO CITY: Mexico was hit with 1,341 new swine flu cases since Monday, bringing the total to 26,338 ahead of the usual autumn flu season, health officials said on Friday. The Health Ministry said one more person died from the A(H1N1) virus between Monday and Thursday, bringing the death toll to 218 in the country where the virus first emerged in April before becoming a pandemic. In late August, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova estimated that nearly one million people could be infected by the virus during the winter, out of a total population of 100 million in Mexico. The global flu death toll has reached 3,486, up 281 from a week ago, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has reported 296,471 known cases of infection. That number is seen as far below actual figures as some countries lack systematic analysis. The UN agency said the Americas region still has the highest death toll, at 2,625. The Asia-Pacific region reported 620 fatalities, while Europe recorded at least 140 deaths. In the Middle East, 61 people succumbed to the virus while in Africa, 40 people have died from it.

California seeks prison solution

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has submitted a plan to relieve prison overcrowding - but it falls short of judges' demands.

A federal court ordered California to reduce its prison population by 40,000 within two years and set a deadline of 18 September for it to present a plan.

Under the governor's plan, the number of inmates would fall by 18,000 over two years, and 35,000 over five years.

This would be done through transfers and changes to sentencing guidelines.

If the state legislature approved changes to indictment guidelines for crimes such as burglary and on at-home monitoring for low-risk offenders these numbers would rise to 23,000 in two years and 47,000 in five years.

"We think we have done... everything we can legally do under state law that is both consistent with good practice for prison systems and is consistent with good public safety on the streets," Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate told journalists.

California has 150,000 people behind bars, in prisons built for barely half that.

A three-judge panel ruled in August that inmates were housed in dangerously overcrowded conditions and ordered the 40,000 reduction.

As the state's proposals fall short of the judges' demands, Mr Schwarzenegger could in theory be held in contempt of court.

California authorities, meanwhile, have argued that the courts are overstepping their authority and should not interfere in state prison policy.

P1.8B for 1.2M kids in pre-school

MANILA, Philippines—A total of P1.8 billion has been earmarked to reinforce the government’s Pre-School Education Program, Cotabato Representative Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said Sunday.

The allocation, contained in the P1.541-trillion national budget for 2010, would support the pre-schooling of 1,271,536 children, in line with the goal to make every five-year-old ready for formal grade schooling by 2015, according to Taliño-Mendoza.

"We really have to improve access to free pre-school services nationwide if we are to make our children highly competitive at an early age," she said.

"Our lack of universal pre-schooling is one of the reasons why we are being left behind by other countries in terms of basic education," she added.

She pointed out that children in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and New Zealand enjoy four years of pre-schooling, while those in the United States and the United Kingdom have two to three years of early childhood education.

Pre-schooling here is almost entirely provided by the private sector, and thus costly and largely inaccessible, she added.

Taliño-Mendoza said the P1 billion in fresh funding would enable the government to train additional pre-school teachers and day-care staff; support existing classes with five-year-old children; service-contract extra classes, mostly in fifth and sixth class towns without day-care centers; and administer the Grade 1 Readiness Assessment Test.

At present, free pre-schooling is limited to day-care centers under the Barangay-Level Total Development and Protection of Children Act of 1990, or Republic Act 6972.

The law created a day care program "to defend the rights of children to assistance, including proper care and nutrition, and to provide them with special protection against all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their development."

Barangay-based (or village-based) day-care centers provide temporary care for children during the day, and allow parents to pursue productive activities.

Under the Early Childhood Care Development Act of 2000, or RA 8990, day-care centers became semi-formal learning facilities that prepare children, over a period of six to 10 months, for elementary schooling.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development runs the community-based centers, which are backed mostly by retired teachers and volunteers. Local governments units cover a portion of staff pay and other expenses.

Taliño-Mendoza is pushing for the passage of new legislation that would establish a free, two-level compulsory public pre-schooling system—Kinder 1 and Kinder 2—for children below six years old.

Kinder 1, for children three to four years old, would be provided by day-care centers, which would all be converted and upgraded into community preschools. The schools would be financed partly by local governments with the support of the local school board.

Kinder 2, for children five years old or below six, would be provided by all existing and new public elementary schools.

The Department of Education shall prescribe new programs for the two preschool levels and the qualifications of teachers, and train day-care volunteers that still lack the necessary credentials.

US plans Afghan prisoner overhaul

he US is preparing to apply new rules that will allow prisoners being held in Afghanistan to challenge their detention, US defence officials say.

The administration of US President Barack Obama will assign all prisoners, who are held at the Bagram air base, a US official to handle their case.

The prisoners will be given the chance to go before review boards.

Mr Obama has pledged to review former US detention policies and vowed to close the Guantanamo Bay jail in Cuba.

Prisoner protests

The new plans have yet to be formally announced.

But defence officials quoted in US media say that for the first time inmates at Bagram, north of Kabul, will be able to submit evidence and summon witnesses to aid their defence.

There are about 600 prisoners at the US military-run base.

They will be represented by US officials, assigned by the military but who are not lawyers, who can gather evidence on their behalf and prepare cases to go before new Detainee Review Boards.

A US defence official told Associated Press news agency that the system would be similar to the one used in Iraq to reduce prisoner populations.

The New York Times quoted another official as saying: "We don't want to hold anyone we don't have to hold. It's just about doing the right thing."

The US military has maintained that those held at Bagram are being held in a war zone and their legal rights are affected accordingly.

However, a US judge in April ruled that several Bagram prisoners had the right to challenge their detention in the US - a ruling the government has appealed.

Prisoners in Bagram have been protesting since July over their legal and humanitarian situation by refusing to leave cells or meet family members and Red Cross officials.

The Obama administration has been reviewing what it regards as the harsher detention methods of the George W Bush government.

On taking office President Obama directed that the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay should close within a year. He has also stopped the CIA from using secret prisons.

Law used to indict Blagojevich challenged by Alaskan

CHICAGO -- Among the corruption charges faced by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is a statute of just 28 words with enough pop to send big names to prison for corruption, but it's under attack by those who consider it vague and unfair.

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, ex-newspaper mogul Conrad Black and one-time Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling have all been convicted of what's known as honest-services fraud. The law makes it illegal for officials, executives and others to scheme to deprive those they serve and possibly others of "the intangible right to honest services."

"It causes fear. It causes confusion," said Chicago attorney and former federal prosecutor Zachary T. Fardon. "And that's the heart of the problem."

There are two separate cases challenging the law pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Antonin Scalia recently described the 21-year-old measure as so poorly defined it could be used to prosecute "a mayor for using the prestige of his office to get a table at a restaurant without a reservation."

Congress adopted the statute in 1988 after the Supreme Court held that prosecutors could not merely assume wire fraud and mail fraud statutes -- the workhorse laws in corruption prosecutions -- covered lost honest services. The mail and wire fraud laws require a defendant to obtain money or property from the wrongdoing; merely depriving a victim of honest services wasn't enough to win a guilty verdict.

In the years since, prosecutors have used the honest services law to bolster the more conventional charges of mail and wire fraud. But experts say aggressive federal prosecutors, such as Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney in northern Illinois, appear to be using it both more often and as a lead charge in an indictment.

In Blagojevich's case, honest-services fraud holds a prominent place in a 19-count indictment that accuses the impeached governor of depriving Illinois residents of his honest services through a wide-ranging scheme involving kickbacks, campaign money and a host of other misdeeds.

"The statute is very vague, and because it is vague, it is a pet statute of prosecutors," said Chicago attorney and former federal prosecutor Julian Solotorovsky. "They're stretching it to the fullest extent possible."

Among those challenging the law is former Alaska state Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, who prosecutors say illegally failed to disclose that he was in job negotiations with oil-field service company Veco Corp. at the same time the state Legislature was also considering an oil tax bill heavily lobbied by the company. The case hasn't gone to trial as the high court considers whether the government can charge him with failing to make a disclosure not required by state law.

Weyhrauch faces three other felony counts that don't rely on the "honest services" provision of the federal fraud statutes, including bribery and the lead charge, conspiracy.

Black and two of his three co-defendants were convicted of depriving the Hollinger International media empire of their faithful services as corporate officers. The offense includes pocketing $5.5 million the government said belonged to the company's shareholders.

The executives initially said the money represented fees from companies that bought community newspapers from Hollinger. But Black and his co-defendants now say the money was really management fees the company owed them and which were "recharacterized" to avoid Canadian income tax.

They say that since they were trying to avoid Canadian taxes and not harm Hollinger, they didn't deprive the shareholders of their honest services and the charges should be thrown out.

The high court has yet to decide whether to take up Skilling's appeal, which argued the honest services law is so vague that it is simply unconstitutional.

"The Supreme Court's decisions to hear two appeals challenging the law in the same term could mean the justices have concerns about prosecutors extending the statute's reach," said Lisa Casey, a Notre Dame University law professor who has written about the law and its recent expanded use against corporate executives.

Just prior to accepting Black's case, the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's patronage chief, Robert Sorich, who was convicted in 2006 in a City Hall hiring fraud scandal. But it was that case that prompted Scalia to say the time has come to clarify confusion over just what the law means.

"Indeed, it seems to me quite irresponsible to let the current chaos prevail," he said.

Increasing trend of swine flu in India: WHO

New Delhi: Even as India is grappling with the swine flu which has claimed over 165 lives in the last two months, the World Health Organisation has said there is an increasing trend of the pandemic in the country. In its recent update on the deadly disease, the UN agency, on its official website, said, "In the tropical regions of Asia, respiratory disease activity remains geographically regional or widespread but the trend is generally increasing as noted in India, Bangladesh, and Cambodia."

The WHO has already termed as highest the number of fatalities due to swine flu in India as compared to other countries, according to the health ministry sources here.

Contrary to India, the agency said, in the temperate region of the southern hemisphere (represented by countries such as Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa), influenza activity continues to decrease or return to baseline.

Noting that an average of two private health care facilities were visited by the patients in India prior to coming to the designated government hospital, the WHO said 44 per cent of the fatal cases had a known underlying condition such as diabetes, lung or heart disease or AIDS.

However, the WHO has still categorised as moderate the intensity and the impact of the swine flu in India so far.

The agency, which is issuing guidelines from time to time to reduce the impact of the pandemic, has recommended closing down of schools to slow down the spread of the virus.

"School closure can operate as a proactive measure, aimed at reducing transmission in the school and spread into the wider community," the agency said.

The WHO also said the main health benefit of "proactive school closure comes from slowing down the spread of an outbreak within a given area and thus flattening the peak of infections".

Bangladesh court says no to mutineer military trial

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh's Supreme Court has registered its opposition to military trials of paramilitary mutineers who killed dozens of army officers six months ago, the country's law minister said on Sunday.

The court action could clear the way for prosecutions to go ahead soon for those charged over the Feb. 24-25 mutiny over pay and command structure, in which irate BDR troopers killed around 80 people.

The dead in the violence at BDR headquarters in Dhaka included 57 army officers who had been placed in command of BDR units.

"The Supreme Court, responding to a reference sent to it by President Zillur Rahman, has given its opinion against trying the mutineers under military laws," Law Minister Sahfiq Ahmed told reporters.

The court formed its opinion after several days of hearings on the reference by 10 top lawyers and legal experts, he said.

The president wanted to know whether the rebel soldiers of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guards should be tried under civil or military rules.

The mutiny spread to 12 other towns before it was contained.

The government said it would review the court recommendations and decide on the next course of action at a multi-ministerial meeting on Monday.

However, law ministry and court officials said they expected trials to start as soon as possible under civil laws.

Initially the government had alleged the mutiny was fuelled by political groups opposing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who took over in January following a landmark democratic election.

A lengthy investigation by the home ministry and police failed to confirm the allegations, though the government said it would conduct further probes to find the mutiny masterminds.

The mutiny was the first major challenge to Hasina's administration, which analysts hoped could bring stability to an impoverished country that has seen frequent violence and political turmoil, discouraging needed aid and investment for its nearly 150 million people.

The mutiny also raised fears of more unrest among defence forces in a country which had been often ruled by the military.

The army conducted its own probe into the BDR rebellion but did not officially publish its findings.

Iran again rules out talks on its nuclear "rights"

EHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will not negotiate about its nuclear "rights", President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday, after the United States said it would focus on the Islamic state's atomic activities in upcoming talks with Tehran.

Iran last week handed over a five-page proposal to the major powers, including the United States, in which Tehran said it was willing to discuss global nuclear disarmament as well as other international issues in wide-ranging talks.

But the document did not mention Iran's own nuclear programme, which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs, and officials have made clear the issue will not be part of any discussions with the major powers.

"From the Iranian nation's viewpoint, (Iran's) nuclear case is closed," official media quoted Ahmadinejad as telling Britain's new ambassador to Tehran.

"Possessing peaceful nuclear technology is the Iranian nation's legal and definitive right and it will not hold discussions about its undeniable rights," he said.

But he added Iran was ready to talk about international cooperation to resolve global economic and security issues.

Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program is for civil energy uses, not weapons.

The United States has said it would accept Iran's offer of wide-ranging talks despite Tehran's stated refusal to discuss its nuclear programme, making clear it intended to raise the issue anyway.

"This may not have been a topic that they wanted to be brought up but I can assure that it's a topic that we'll bring up," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Saturday.

Six major powers -- the permanent U.N. Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, as well as Germany -- offered Iran trade and diplomatic incentives in 2006 in exchange for a halt to uranium enrichment.

They improved the offer last year but retained the demand that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, something Tehran has ruled out as a precondition.

Ahmadinejad also told British Ambassador Simon Gass when he presented his credentials, that Iran had many "negative memories" about its ties with Britain, state broadcaster IRIB said.

"Of course our look is towards the future and expansion of ties and we hope that the British government has learnt from its past and is moving towards correcting its past actions," said the president, who often rails against the West.